What the Heck Is This?

"An interactive poetry experience" is what my cousin wrote on a sidewalk sign to advertise what I'd be hosting at her gallery later that night. Seemed like too many syllables, but maybe it was OK? 

"It's live theater," said a friend, "everyone coming to the front of the room and performing." She had a point. Audience members do read my poems out loud, often with brio. There are props that highlight the connections between risk and safety, including a faux wall and two faux weapons (that look like TV remotes). And I sport a costume:  a dress and boots that caricature my tendency to use clothing as armor. Still, "theater" sounds more infrastructural than my simple to-dos.

"A poetry reading," I say in my promotional blurbs, defaulting to the standard term. Unfortunately, these words can suggest an author droning in poetry voice and a restless audience longing for the exit.

So what am I doing? The words haven't come to me yet, but maybe you can help. Come to one of my...uh...events, and tell me what you think is going on. Better yet just sit there and listen, or speak if you feel led. Either way, it's all about the rhythm of words in our bodies and the many ways that beat goes on.